It had been in the works for a while, but now it has formally been adopted. From the article:
The regulation provides that by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement.
Because they’d rather sell you a new phone than have you repair your device so it lasts longer. It’s capitalism at work. Same reason why everyone and their mom is moving their products to a subscription model. They want that steady flow of revenue rather than a one-off purchase price. I hate it but that’s what everything goes towards.
I mean, in a lot of cases I think subscriptions are bullshit. It’s also worth noting that we’re not expecting to be sold a product with a fixed warranty of a year anymore either. We want software patches for 5 years, we want recalls out 10 years, we want parts availability etc etc. These all cost money too. And because of how capitalism works, we get pushed to unbundle as much as possible so the initial sale price looks the cheapest. It’s why we now have movements to try and make companies show all the fees (and taxes in some cases) as part of the purchase price.
Now, personally, I think the issue is either we’re not bundling enough into the purchase (i.e. build in the 5 years or whatever of software updates, battery changes, repairs and parts availability, and such) or we’re bundling too much - i.e. the OS should be separate from the hardware, like with PCs.
I do think that we need some regulation if we’re interested in sustainability / environment that we just won’t let manufacturers sell disposable designs. We have done it with some products in some places (straws and plastic bags), and while I think those specific ones are kind of stupid - it looks like it’s possible. And the idea that you can’t design for repair-ability and look “modern” is… halfway between a complete lie and a place where maybe we need to as a society change what we want a modern design to be.